The present trend in automotive design places great emphasis on streamlining to lessen wind resistance in order to improve fuel economy and reduce wind noise. The very latest vehicles reflect this trend in such details as redesigned or eliminated window and body moldings, flush or recessed door handles and relatively flat wheel covers.
In spite of these improvements, most automobiles continue to have fixed headlights whose lenses are vertical or substantially vertical and usually the headlights are recessed into the front quarter panels of the vehicle, making deep pockets which capture the wind and offer maximum resistance to air flow. Automotive disigners are well aware of this serious defect which mitigates against their current efforts to produce vehicle bodies which are "slippery" in relation to the air flowing over them. There simply has been no economically satisfactory or practical solution to the headlight problem, particularly on the less expensive high production models of automobiles.
As a result, the problem has been largely ignored except on a relatively few higher priced automobiles where power-operated tiltable headlights have been devised which are moved between inclined non-use or daylight positions to vertical use or nighttime positions. Such movable headlights require separate motors to operate and are therefore very expensive. They accomplish the purpose of reducing wind resistance only when in the inclined non-use position, and not when in the upright use position.
In other cases, deeply recessed headlights having vertical lenses are used in conjunction with long fixed auxiliary lenses which are formed to match the contours of the streamlined body front quarter panels. These long inclined auxiliary lenses are not only costly but tend to introduce optical problems into the illumination system including problems of reflection and refraction of light delivered by the headlights.
With all of the above in view, the present invention has for its objective the provision of headlights for automotive vehicles which, by the use of economical and practical means, can be built into the vehicle body in fixed positions whereby the lenses of the headlights are substantially flush with and parallel to the adjacent inclined and streamlined body surfaces so as to assist in implementing the overall "slipperiness" of the body design, and not create excessive wind resistance as now occurs with conventional headlights.
A further and more specific object of the invention is to provide a vehicle headlight of the above type and for the above purpose having a built-in light ray deflecting means whereby the light produced by the headlight is properly directed on the roadway in accordance with legal requirements governing pattern and intensity of illumination even when the optical axis of the headlight is steeply inclined from the usual nearly horizontal axis of conventional headlights.
Another object of the invention is to provide a fixed position headlight for streamlined vehicles having a large range of usefulness, in relation to the rather wide variations in the degrees of slope on the hoods and quarter panels of some modern-day vehicles.
Still another object is to provide a fixed position headlight for streamlined vehicles possessing built-in light beam deflection means in the form of a plurality of opaque slats having light reflecting surfaces.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art during the course of the following description.